Honda Philippines to resume importing from Thailand

Honda Cars Philippines. Inc. will again import cars and parts from Thailand starting around middle of the year, HCPI president Tatsuya Natsume told reporters in an interview Monday. Operations at Honda Thailand returned to normal last March 26, Tatsuya said at the sidelines of the new CR-V launch in Pasay City. "So in a month or two, we can resume importation."   However, the Thailand facility–devastated by floods last November–is giving their local demand the priority before filling in orders from the Philippine, he noted.   Honda Philippines used to import the CR-V, Jazz and Accord models as well as completely knocked down units of the Civic from Thailand until the factory there was inundated by floods. The Civic units were assembled at the Honda factory in Santa Rosa, Laguna.   "Eventually, in the upcoming months, Honda Automobile Thailand will also resume the supply of automobile component parts for assembly as well as complete built-up cars to the Philippines,” said Yuishi Fukuda, general manager of the Automobile Business Division of Asian Honda Motor Co. Ltd.     “And we are very much excited in bringing back the joy to our customers here," he added.   With the chain supply for parts and units disrupted by the flooding in Thailand, HCPI was forced to close shop from November 2011 to January 2012.   Last February, Honda Philippines resumed operations by filling the supply gap with car models from imported from Japan.   Last March, Honda sold 1,631 units, the highest number of cars it sold in 20 months. That, according to the HCPI president, reflected the turnaround for Honda that started in February.   "All of the new models of Honda enjoyed full month sales and healthy availability in March, which enabled us to be number one in passenger car segment for the month of March 2012," Natsume said.   The fourth-generation CR-V, launched Monday, was the first ever in Southeast Asia, Natsume said.   The automatic transmission CR-V in 2.0- and 2.4-liter variants costs from P1.4 million to P1.6 million.   The first edition of the model was also launched in the Philippines, after Japan, in 1997, as well as the second (2001) and third (2006) generations. —VS, GMA News